How I used Basecamp Personal to track the progress of my latest EP
This article is about my first use of Basecamp. I will soon publish another one explaining how I used it in the context of software development scenario.
On January 29th 2020, I released my first EP for a new solo project of mine: Distorted Eyes. In this post, I will explain how the project started, why I used Basecamp Personal to track my progress and how I organized everything in this software to help me get things done!
I’ve been playing music since I’m a kid. I’ve taken classical piano for 11 years, then switched to the electric guitar at around 16 years old when it became clear that rock and metal was what I wanted to do musically. A couple of months later, I discovered the pleasure of recording myself in my “home studio” (read: my bedroom). Since there was a lack of vocalists in my small city in the Montreal suburbs, I also learned how to sing and scream to complete my “band”.
Between my “glorious” early demo days and today, I’ve created 2 full albums, one that is unreleased (thank gawd!) another one that I released on Bandcamp. I’ve also collaborated with other bands too, like for example when I did most of the samples on the two first albums of my good friends in Phobocosm.
However, for the last couple of years, I’ve been pretty dormant on the music side. The time had come for me to go back to the studio and write music again so an EP seemed to be a good project scale to do from start to finish.
Now, enough about the past and let’s talk about Basecamp! I’ve been a fan of DHH , Jason Fried and their philosophy for a very long time. I’ve read Rework and Getting Real back when they were published and they completely changed my life and how I think forever.
Years later, Remote, It doesn’t have to be crazy at work and Shape Up were published and kept the message alive but one thing was pretty strange in all that: I had never tried Basecamp myself… The trial wasn’t long enough and the pricing of 99$ per month was too much for a team of one person team like me.
A couple of months later, around the same time I started to work on my EP, Basecamp Personal was announced on Twitter.
I was so excited that I created an account minutes after the announcement. The personal account is Basecamp with all the features but it is aimed at freelancers, students, families, and personal projects. It comes with some restrictions (only 20 people can be invited and space is limited to 1 Gb instead of being unlimited).
It was perfect for my little EP project. One of the main features of Basecamp, at least for me, is the Hill Chart.
I chose to use one todo list (scope) for each song and to create additional todo lists for things like mastering, promotion, etc. I could then create todos in each of the songs to know what’s left for me to do. Record a bass track, fix the vocals here and there, change distortion, compose drum, etc… It helped me keep track of everything that was left to do. It kept me motivated all the way to the end of the project.
One thing that is awesome about Basecamp is that the Android app is not just a read-only version of the complete app. You can do almost anything in the app. So when I had an idea on the go, I could open the app and write it down.
I used the Message Board to write my lyrics, throw ideas about the name of the album, etc. I used it like a notepad.
I used the “Docs and files” section to upload early demos of my song, both as a backup and also to be able to listen to them from anywhere. I also used the public link sharing capability to share it with my friends and get their advice.
I used the invitation feature to invite a friend to help me with my lyrics and to enable him to listen to my demos. I think this is the most interesting feature of Basecamp. Most other collaboration software have very strict policies for the people you invite and you need to get into very complicated access rights. With Basecamp, the default is that everyone has access to everything. It was very refreshing.
I didn’t use Campfire, Schedule or Automatic Check-ins since I was pretty much alone in the project but I’m sure they could be of great use to a complete band.
That’s pretty much it. Basecamp is an extremely minimalist management tool. Don’t expect anything fancy. I think it is pretty well suited for small projects like this one, so if you are planning to record an album or to attack a similar artistic project, try it!
In the end, I have created my first EP in years, and I’m very proud of it.
If you like alternative metal with a touch of industrial, listen to my album on Bandcamp or Spotify. You can even buy it for 5$. Thanks!!